Tag Archives: Opera Max

Opera web browsers have long had the ability to speed up web surfing and conserve bandwidth by compressing web traffic. Opera Mini compresses all web traffic and serves a static representation of the web page, while Opera for Desktop and Android have an ‘Off-Road’ (previously Turbo) mode that can be enabled to turn on data compression. However, Android users can enjoy the same benefits without being tied down to Opera browser thanks to Opera Max.

Opera Max acts as a VPN, which reroutes all unencrypted traffic through its servers, where the data is first compressed and then sent to your Android smartphone. Opera Max is also the first product from the Norwegian browser developer to leverage SkyFire’s Rocket Optimizer technology. Opera had acquired SkyFire Labs in early 2013 for $155 million. Rocket Optimizer can compress nearly every streaming video, including YouTube videos, to realize data savings up to 60%. Additionally, Opera Max also compresses standard web traffic including text and images.

Opera Max – Data Compression Statistics

Getting started with Opera Max is pretty simple. After you download the app, you’ll be prompted to grant it permission to act as a VPN. There’s no configuration required beyond this. Opera Max will stay in the background and compress data used by various apps. It can’t compress everything. For example, streaming music as well as encrupted traffic aren’t compressed. However, you should be able to realize about 10% data savings during normal web surfing, and a lot more during video playback. It automatically disables itself when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. Opera Max also acts as a pretty neat bandwidth monitor that gives you daily and monthly breakdowns of network bandwidth usage. You can select a app to view its history of data usage, and even prevent that app from using mobile data.

Opera Max – Prevent an App From Using Mobile Data

Opera Max is free to use, but it also has a Recharge tab. There isn’t much you can do other there, other than tapping a button to recharge Opera Max for free every seven days. Presumably, the recharge tab is there because Opera intends to switch to a freemium model later on.

Most people with smartphones are tied down by meagre data packs that are often not bigger than 1 GB. Even if Opera Max manages to save only a hundred megabytes per month, that will enable users to get several extra days’ worth of usage from their data packs. How useful Opera Max proves to be will depend on your internet usage habits. People who mainly use mobile data for streaming music on the go, won’t be able to realize significant benefits. However, if you watch a lot of videos or surf a lot, you might end up with significant savings. Over the past week, I’ve consumed 450 MB of data, out of which, more than 300 MB was file downloads and Spotify streaming that Opera can’t compress. For the remaining 150 MB of bandwidth usage, Opera managed to save 19 MB of data usage.